How To Ensure Your Workplace is Safe

As an employer, you are required by law to ensure your workplace is safe. Therefore, you must protect your employees’ health, safety, and welfare at work as far as it is reasonably practicable for you to do so. You are also required by law to ensure that you protect your employees by assessing the risks they may encounter and controlling these through risk assessment.  

The Health and Safety Executive is the government body that ensures that work-related death, injuries and ill-health are avoided in the workplace. They support businesses with guidance and advice to avoid unsafe conditions. This will aid you in managing risks around workplace health and safety correctly. 

This article will explain some of the requirements to ensure that your workplace is safe. Indeed, maintaining a safe workplace is vital to ensure your employees are safe and that you abide by the law as an employer.

What Does a Safe Workplace Mean?

A safe workplace means that the place of work is practicably safe, hygienic, and caters to the welfare and comfort of your employees. If you employ five or more employees, you also must ensure that a health and safety policy exists. Employers must have Employer’s Liability Insurance, which provides cover should your employees fall ill or have an accident. 

How Can You Make a Workplace Physically Safe and Comfortable?

You must follow some rules to ensure you provide a safe working environment. The building should be both safe and comfortable for employees. 

Safety

For example, the building itself needs to be safe. Therefore, you must ensure:

• the buildings your employees work in are in good repair;
• the place where your employees work and the equipment they use is safe and works properly;
• open edges such as fences, guard rails and floor openings, when employees are not using them, are safe so people cannot fall;
• the space your employees work in is large enough to move safely and access safely;
• that you use safety glass where necessary; 
• that there are no obstacles where people are walking;
• where you require drainage, it is adequate;
• windows openings and adjustments are safe and can be cleaned safely; and
• skylights can be cleaned safely.

Your employees should be able to move around your workplace safely, which means both on foot and, where appropriate, in vehicles too. Floors should be even and not slippery. Handrails and ramps should be in place where needed, and doorways and gates should be made safely.

Comfort

Your employees should also be comfortable. This means you must:

• maintain an adequate temperature (usually a minimum temperature of 16 degrees celsius);
• ensure there is adequate ventilation;
• provide safe heating appliances; and
• ensure workstations and seats are adequate.

If there is an issue in your workplace, you must follow certain rules. For example, you must:

• immediately correct any dangerous defects;
• ensure that you have put in measures to protect those who will be at risk where immediate correction is not possible;
• reduce the risks of snow or ice by using salt where their presence causes a safety hazard;
• clear a spillage quickly; and
• remove dirt and rubbish regularly.

How Can You Maintain Workplace Hygiene and Look After Welfare?

In addition to ensuring that the physical aspects of your workplace are safe and comfortable for your employees, you are also required to ensure that you maintain a level of cleanliness and hygiene in the workplace. This can mean:

• keeping stairs, floors, furniture, fittings, internal walls and ceilings clean;
• ensuring there is a bin provided;
• providing toilets and handwashing facilities which include soap, hot and cold or warm running water and facilities for drying hands;
• providing drinking water;
• ensuring a rest area is provided where meals can be eaten and ensuring that this area does not allow food to become contaminated;
• a shower for emergencies;
• space to change clothes where required as well as facilities to dry wet clothes where required and practical to do so;
• hanging space for non-work clothes; and
• a resting area for women who are pregnant or require a breastfeeding area.

How Does COVID-19 Impact on Making the Workplace Safe?

There are additional measures that an employer should take in response to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

These are as follows:

1. update your regular risk assessment to account for COVID-19. The Health and Safety Executive offers detailed guidance on how to do this;
2. encourage regular hand washing and maintain a clean workplace;
3. ensure your workplace has good ventilation;
4. communicate measures you are putting in place with your employees;
5. if employees are required to work from home, ensure they have the right equipment, stay in contact with them and be mindful of their wellbeing; and 
6. put any necessary extra measures in place to reduce the risk of the virus for those vulnerable.

You should note that if your employee can work from home during the pandemic, but you do not allow them to, they may have a case of disability discrimination.

Key Takeaways

As an employer, the law requires you to ensure your workplace is safe for your employees. This means the physical aspects of the workplace need to be safe, including safe access, adequate space and safe fitting. However, you are also responsible for ensuring the workplace is clean and comfortable for your employees. This means maintaining good hygiene, providing certain facilities and ensuring that the temperature is adequate. Maintaining a safe workplace also includes ensuring you have Employers Liability Insurance to cover your employees and may include having a health and safety policy. Other requirements are also necessary due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

If you need help understanding how to ensure your workplace in England and Wales is safe, our experienced employment lawyers can assist as part of our LegalVision membership. For a low monthly fee, you will have unlimited access to lawyers to answer your questions and draft and review your documents for a low monthly fee. So call us today on 0808 196 8584 or visit our membership page.

Frequently Asked Questions